US win mixed relay with world record as Netherlands’ Femke Bol falls

BUDAPEST – The United States won a dramatic World Athletics Championships gold with a world record in the mixed 4x400m relay on Saturday, as Femke Bol fell five metres from the line just as it looked as if she was going to finish first for the Netherlands.

The Dutch ran a brilliant race but US anchor Alexis Holmes refused to let Bol escape and was within inches of her before Bol crashed to the track, hitting her head and dropping the baton.

The winning time of 3min 8.80sec broke the Americans’ own world record set in the first running of the event in 2019. Britain took the silver in 3:11.06 and the Czech Republic bronze in 3:11.98 – both national records.

An event still finding its feet delivered an unforgettable finale for the impressive crowd in Budapest.

Gabby Thomas had been expected to join the US team after sitting out the morning heats, but the 200m specialist was not included as Matthew Boling came in for Ryan Willie who ran in the morning heats.

The favourites started well, but a brilliant second leg by Lieke Klaver pushed the Dutch, who took silver in 2022, into the lead.

By the time Bol got the baton for the last leg, it looked a foregone conclusion as the 400m hurdles specialist and indoor 400m world record holder has been in stunning form in recent weeks.

Holmes, however, delivered a gutsy effort to stay in her wake and was inching alongside her with the outcome still in doubt when Bol collapsed.

Coming only a few metres further on from where compatriot Sifan Hassan had fallen while leading within sight of the 10,000m finish line earlier, it was another devastating disappointment for the Dutch.

“I don’t know what happened. I cramped towards the finish line. I was pushing, pushing, pushing,” Bol said. “I was disappointed my body did not have it in me to finish the race strongly. I’m sorry for my team. I should have finished it off and it sucks big time.”

For the US, the victory and world record were welcome validation of their one-lap strength in depth after they managed only bronze in the event at Tokyo 2020 and in Eugene, having also won gold at the 2019 world championships.

“It is amazing. It was definitely tough to run against Femke Bol. She is an amazing athlete, but I believed I could run it down because I felt really strong and determined to win and I felt good,” said the 23-year-old Holmes.

The US also delivered a gold off the track after shot put legend Ryan Crouser dominated Saturday’s final from the outset and twice broke the championship record.

Crouser labelled the successful defence of his world title as “the best performance of his life” given at one point he was unsure he would even be able to get to Budapest due to blood clots in a calf.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe had pinpointed the men’s shot put as the event to savour and Crouser did not let him down, signing off with a stunning 23.51m effort, 5cm off his world record.

Crouser said the run-in to the worlds had been “the most stressful 20 days I’ve ever had”.

“The week before I was supposed to leave, I woke up with calf pain and we thought I had a partial tear in my calf. We treated it like that but, after 10 days of no improvement, we had a doctor look at it and he said you have two blood clots,” the two-time Olympic champion said.

Crouser, who in the 2016 Rio Games broke Ulf Timmerman’s 28-year-old Olympic record, said his final throw would rank alongside his world record as the throw of his life.

“After all that, it was the best performance of my life, given the health issues, the stress and all of it. It wasn’t quite a world record but, to me, it was,” he said.

Maria Perez completed a Spanish double in the 20km race walk after comfortably beating Australia’s Jemima Montag to win the women’s event on Sunday, with Antonella Palmisano of Italy taking bronze.

Defending champion Kimberly Garcia Leon of Peru led a breakaway group that at the halfway mark included Perez, Montag, Olympic champion Palmisano and Yang Jiayu of China, the 2017 winner and current world record holder.

But Perez, like compatriot Alvaro Martin in the men’s event on the opening day of the championships on Saturday, pulled away with around 5km remaining and crossed the line in 1hr 26min 51sec.

The 27-year-old finished 25sec ahead of Montag and became the first Spanish woman to win the event at the world championships.

“I cannot even put into words how important it was to me to win this gold. Victory in this distance was my main goal for Budapest... I put all my power into this race,” said Perez, the 35km world record holder.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson led the heptathlon with only the 800m remaining at the worlds on Sunday as the 30-year-old continued her comeback from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

The 2019 world champion threw 46.14m in the javelin, shattering her previous personal best of 44.33m, to hold on to top spot in the standings with 5,710 points.

In a shock, reigning champion Fred Kerley and rusty Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs both failed to make the final of the men’s 100m. In a loaded field, Jacobs could manage only 10.05sec to finish fifth in a semi-final won by American Noah Lyles in 9.87.

Jacobs said: “I’m lacking races. It doesn’t reflect my level. I could have chosen to stay at home but I fought and gave my best.”

There was more drama as Kerley then finished third in his semi-final in 10.02sec behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and Botswanan Letsile Tebogo. REUTERS, AFP